Can This Election Be Cancelled?

The National Organization of Women (NOW) had a great article today on a seemingly paranoid but definitely possible situation that may arise for this upcoming election — that it will postponed or cancelled. It can’t be paranoid at all, considering the fact that Bush administration officials were asked to create guidelines in the event of a possible terrorist attack on election day.
Apparently, the chair of the Election Assistance Commission, DeForest B. Soaries, (appointed by Bush, of course) sent letters to National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and Homeland Security Advisor Tom Ridge to consider the possibility of a terrorist attack on or close to the day that we are to elect our new president. The September 11, 2001 attack was on election day in New York.
Not only did Soaries inquire about this, but also requested from Ridge for Congress to pass legislation giving him the power to reschedule elections. Should I be surprised?
Yet after this information was leaked to the public, Soaries was quick to make a statement, assuring us that “no circumstances could justify the postponement or cancellation of a presidential election in the United States.” This statement included some pretty vague indications of the development of a contingency plan.
Following this, a resolution (H. Res. 728) was created by Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, in order to appease the lingering worries that Republicans might try to devise a plan to postpone or cancel the election. The resolution passed 419 to 2 on July 22, stating that national elections will never be postponed in the face of terrorist threats or attacks, “nor will any individual or agency be given the authority to postpone the date of a Presidential election.”
Good for Ney! The thing is, as NOW pointed out, is that resolutions are merely statements of a particular view and do not uphold the law. Let’s cross our fingers, because I sure as hell wouldn’t put anything past this administration.